The Worst Day
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: Minerva suffers through Umbridge, a persistent alarm clock, speedy house elves, a lack of sleep, camaraderie with Snape, and an uncomfortable encounter with Sybill Trelawney. And it's the single worst day of the year.
1. Chapter 1

She heard her alarm sound, the shrillness of her magical clock completely filling her bedroom, making it utterly impossible for her to ignore it. Although she was determined to give it a damn good shot if for nothing else than a few more minutes in bed. It had to stop soon. It simply HAD to.

"I will blast you into next week if you don't shut up in the next second!"

It didn't.

Grumbling, the teacher pulled herself off the bed, holding her emerald duvet around her and traipsed to the other side of the room, where her alarm clock was currently signing its own death warrant. She couldn't for the life of her remember who had suggested to her that having your alarm clock strategically placed so that one would have to get out of bed, therefore making you more awake, but she was going to kill them.

Feeling that it was perhaps her duty to set an example to her students and refusing to give Dolores Umbridge any excuse to chastise her she forced herself into her en-suite bathroom, tossing the duvet on the bed as she went past. The cold immediately hit her and she dearly wished that the previous evening she had had the foresight to wear warmed nightwear. Stumbling to the sink she became aware that she couldn't see clearly and in her early-morning haze it took her a few moments to remember she wore glasses.

The instant she placed them on her face the calmer, more collected and all-round sharper woman that usually inhabited her body returned. She saw herself in the mirror and began to wonder vaguely if she would scare the High Inquisitor should she run towards her looking like this. Needless to say it was not an encouraging prospect for her non-existent love life. Merely seconds after she had reached for her toothbrush a thought struck her…there had been no classes yesterday! How odd, it had not been the weekend. And there had been none the day before that either.

Minerva McGonagall was not above admitting she was wrong. She didn't much like doing it, but she would when pushed. However she most certainly did not like looking like a fool and was eternally thankful that nobody else was around to see the shock on her face when she remembered they were three days into the holidays. For a moment she stared at herself in the mirror, fighting the urge to scream at being up at 6 o'clock for no actual reason, then she remembered that breakfast continued for those remaining until half past ten and she smiled.

She tore her glasses roughly from her face and tore back into her bedroom, allowing herself one last moment of energy as she dived onto her bed.

Only to land face first on a parcel.

Having neither the will nor the patience to fetch her glasses again she squinted at the offending bit of post, noticing first the obscenely jolly, colourful wrapping, then the tag, which she couldn't read.

Two thoughts hit her simultaneously. Firstly that the house elves were really quite frighteningly quick with the delivery service, she had, after all, only been out the bedroom for a minute. And then the more jarring realisation.

It was Christmas Day.


	2. Chapter 2

The overall grumpiness that Minerva experienced on this day was legendary amongst both staff and students and she wondered for a moment which brave, stupid fool had sent her a present this early in the morning. Especially after she had just endured a whole term of Umbridge's nonsense with the unfortunate knowledge that there were two more terms to go.

Assuming she didn't kill her first. Which was not beyond the realm of possibility. The Transfiguration teacher had a history with whoever took over the DADA job. She had threatened Quirrel once, by accident really, and not that much. Lockheart on the other hand had warranted one of her more terrifying glares, the kind that Snape would be proud of, although, quite irritatingly he had not recognised how despised he was. Remus she had of course enjoyed the company of, although she distinctly remembered the many hours he spent in Detention with his comrades and the dread she had inspired in them. She was one of the two people who had bested Mad-Eye Moody in a duel, though she supposed it wasn't technically Mad-Eye. Although she had nearly made Barty Crouch Jr. cry in his first year. And had watched him lose his soul only a few months ago. The memory of the former amused her a great deal more.

No, all in all Umbridge's chances weren't great. On the other hand her temper was in check and she thought she could control it under any circumstances. Though somebody was severely pushing it by sending her a parcel, at six o' clock in the morning on _Christmas_.

_Who the hell is it from?…As though I need to ask you bloody old coot!_

Sure enough the parcel was from Albus, complete with a merry message on the card that spoke aloud and told her to cheer up, as it was Christmas. Had she had her wand, or half a chance at destroying a charm of Dumbledore's she would have decimated it. Having neither of these things she opened it to find a purple shawl wrapped around an expensive bottle of sherry and a first edition copy of the muggle classic Jane Eyre.

Had Minerva known Albus Dumbledore for a shorted period than she did she would have assumed her had mixed up the gifts accidentally, as she was interested in none of these presents, but she had known him for longer. And she had long since adjusted to his increasingly obvious attempts to forge a peace between her and Sybill Trelawney. Undoubtedly, at this very moment (or perhaps not quite yet, Minerva had, after all woke ridiculously early) Sybill was probably opening a parcel with a tartan bed throw, a bottle of the best whiskey and a copy of King Lear.

The presents varied of course (only slightly) but every other year without fail Albus would "accidentally" mix up their parcels, forcing them to speak. So far they had managed to do it with minimal speech and had once swapped parcels through other members of staff, before Albus had put a kibosh on that

As it was Minerva didn't hate Sybill completely, not as a mere abstract idea of a person who flitted around her classroom and generally spoke bollocks, it was only when they were forced to converse that the need to hex somebody became overwhelming. And even then she didn't really hate her. She remembers disliking her a great deal more in the past that she does now, but Sybill is familiarity, she is part of the castle and Minerva hates change as much as she does Dolores Umbridge. And she particularly hates said woman bringing about change.

On the other hand she doesn't think she has seen so much fight in the staff since the time of Voldemort, and even then it was more because he was a Dark Lord rather than anything especially personal. Voldemort had led to an ordered assault against the Death Eaters and magical creatures from the powerful and respected members of the Wizarding community, which of course included the staff. The very same staff who had reverted to their childhood's to indulge in a full-scale rebellion against one woman.

Unity was all very well, but when Minerva McGonagall didn't know the date something was very wrong with the psyches of the teachers.

With a sigh she placed the gifts on the floor carefully and burrowed back under her excessively large duvet for a few more hours shut-eye, deciding she would worry about the evil day when she work up to it properly.


End file.
